The Pipeline TD II develops and maintains software tools, providing front-line assistance to artists, and general troubleshooting of the CG pipeline in a fast-paced, feature film visual effects production environment. The primary focus is ensuring artist efficiency.
What You'll Do
Develop pipeline and asset management tools to meet immediate, show-directed production demands, ensuring facility-wide consistency as directed by show and technical supervisors
Help maintain a wide array of existing workflows and scripts
Provide front-line production assistance across a wide range of disciplines, troubleshoot assets and shots, and help artists with general problem-solving. Monitor email requests, package up problems and redirect to appropriate engineering team
Test and validate tools and techniques in production. Work closely with engineering teams in testing, and releasing new and modified software systems
Act as an on-call resource for show production staff, primarily for complex, urgent problems.
Collaborate effectively with artists, production supervisors, and technical staff across ILM studios in San Francisco, Singapore, Sydney, and London
When not crewed to shows, serve on software teams working on projects that improve the efficiency of asset setup, caching, and shot-data handoff between artists across the entire pipeline
Identify day-to- day priorities in conjunction with show supervisors; act autonomously
Work primarily on tools of a high degree of complexity, requiring a broad understanding of the larger pipeline
Assist junior Pipeline TDs in providing front-line assistance; resolve complex user errors; guide Pipeline Engineers and R&D with debugging technical issues
Develop comprehensive knowledge of software and systems; contribute to evolving standards and conventions used in production
Update documentation for the pipeline and tools to reflect any changes that are made
What We're Looking For
Bachelor's degree or equivalent in Computer Science or a related technical field
Demonstrated experience developing and maintaining tools for use in computer graphics
At least 5 years production experience in visual effects for film, commercials or television
Proficiency in Linux
Advanced Python scripting required
Experience in one or more of Maya, Nuke, Houdini, Mari, Katana, RenderMan or similar
Ability to communicate cross-discipline and provide innovative solutions to pipeline issues
Detail oriented and strong self-sufficient troubleshooter
Thorough knowledge of the entire visual effects process, from shooting to modeling and texturing, animation, rendering and compositing
Nice to have:
Experience with production database systems
Experience with C, C++
Experience with Windows development and applications such as 3ds max
